Is the Moon called “the Moon” because it’s a moon, or are moons called “moons” because of the Moon?

r/

Like did we come up with and name the concept of moons before naming our moon “the Moon,” or are other moons called “moons” because they’re named after the Moon?

Comments

  1. Dick_Sewage Avatar

    MOON, that spells moon.

  2. griffgraff719 Avatar

    I’m assuming we were calling it the moon long before we knew about the other moons, right?

  3. _MapleMaple_ Avatar

    I assume our moon was the only moon we knew of at first. Them the others were named after it. Our sky egg is the only one without a unique name tho.

  4. whiskey_epsilon Avatar

    The latter. The Moon is the name of the specific object orbiting earth, the type of object is defined as a planetary satellite. When we discovered the other satellites, they were colloquially referred to as moons due to the similarity. Satellite as a term fell out of favour in common parlance (still used scientifically) when we started making artificial satellites and referred to them as satellites to the point that we forgot that satellites can also be natural.

    edit to add: in the early geocentric models, the sun was also believed to orbit the earth, so the idea of the moon as we understand it today wasn’t unique to the moon then.

  5. WiWook Avatar

    I always thought the earth’s moon was named Luna, which means moon, of course…

  6. azuth89 Avatar

    Second one. 

    We didn’t figure out there were other moons for sure until the 1600s

  7. crashorbit Avatar

    The word “Moon” comes from old english.

    https://www.etymonline.com/word/moon

  8. SkyPork Avatar

    Please mods, encourage posts like this. This is exactly what I come to this sub for!

  9. DryFoundation2323 Avatar

    We didn’t know about other moons thousands of years ago when the moon got its name.

  10. whereisyourmother Avatar

    Is the colour orange called orange because the fruit is orange, or is the fruit called orange because it’s orange?

  11. Runyamire-von-Terra Avatar

    I’m pretty sure The Moon came first (our word for it, not the celestial body itself), then later we figured what The Moon was, then even later we figured out that other things also have moons.

    This actually gets me wondering about how other languages adapted. Like, every language must have had a word for our moon, as we see it most nights. But I wonder how many languages use their “Moon” word to also refer to other moons. Someone bilingual help me out here.

  12. MWave123 Avatar

    Luna, all others are moons.

  13. thatirishdave Avatar

    Other moons are explicitly named after our moon. The change happened in the mid 1600s as we learned more about our solar system.

  14. xylarr Avatar

    “That’s not a moon”

  15. Embarrassed-Weird173 Avatar

    From my understanding, other planets have “satellite bodies” but we call them “moons” because that’s what we call our satellite. Of course, planets are satellite bodies to stars, so it’s kinda not specific enough.

  16. jerrythecactus Avatar

    “Moon” is the name of earth’s large natural satellite, as well as a classification for similar objects.

    Moons, are therefore named after earth’s moon.

  17. Ok_Outlandishness344 Avatar

    Our moon is named luna.

  18. Showdown5618 Avatar

    Our moon is called the Moon, which is a satellite, like our sun is called the Sun, which is a star. I think we may end up calling our moon Luna and our sun Sol in the future.

  19. peaveyftw Avatar

    It’s called The Moon because it’s the Moon.

  20. bicyclejawa Avatar

    There are a bunch of moons. Our only natural satellite is Luna.

  21. Calvin_Spline Avatar

    The B52s were right, There’s a moon in the sky and it’s called the Moon!

  22. aaronite Avatar

    Both the Sun and the Moon are the official IAU names for our star and our moon. Some might claim Sol and Luna, but those are just the Latin words for the Sun and the Moon. They are poetic but not official in English.

  23. Danvers2000 Avatar

    Or is it called a moon because you speak English? The word came from the word Mona meaning month and in the 1600s (roughly) it was extended to mean our moon and other satellites orbiting planets.

  24. St_toine Avatar

    Moon comes from the nordic futhark for “mannaz”[ᛗ]; germanic “mena” also derived as “month” in old english. Related to the idea of being time-keeper of the seasons, the harvest, and agriculture.

    Why it’s called the moon, is because it’s an inherited german word.

    In latin derived languages, the term is “Luna” were is derived the words “lunatic”[EN] and “lunar”[EN, ES] which is derived from the moon divinity for the romans.

    -yes by all means-

    The moon in both roots is considered a form of deity. Specially, when considering the contextual mythology of nordic derived civilizations. And, with the mixing and sharing of ideas between the romans, the goths, and so on and so forth. Also, “Mani” with a translocation to moon is basically the same root. “Mens”

    also, “mensis” in latin is equivalent to “month”.

    So, likely… since the “moon”, “luna” was often seen as a timekeeper for early civilizations. The concept remained in the language, but it wasn’t until Copernicus and Galileo that we really saw anything outside of the earth orbit.

    Provided, the word was so ingrained into the society. That when, we began labeling moons. We called them moons. But, they could very well be some diff. Kinda satellite., some could be asteroids, some could be old meteors. Even the moon itself is laden with a lot of mystery.

    Then again, I suppose not to confuse ourselves with the reference point “our moon” we called them diff. Names but retained the category as moon, satellite or other. But, generally speaking. They are nothing a-like ours. And basically, none of them are the replicas of each other, or even vastly similar.

  25. Aniso3d Avatar

    the Moon (capitalized) is the proper name of the moon orbiting Earth. when you lowercase moon, it can refer to other bodies orbiting other planets.., but when you Uppercase it “Moon” it only refers to ours orbiting Earth

    it’s actually rather recent that the moons of Jupiter are called moons. I have books from the 70’s that refer to them as Natural Satellites. when Galileo Galilei first discovered them, he called them Satellites (which as defined back then was an attendant, or follower of a superior )

  26. MainGood7444 Avatar

    IAU Naming Authority:
    The IAU, “International Astronomical Union (IAU)” is responsible for assigning names to all celestial bodies, including planets, moons, and asteroids. 
    Traditional Names:
    The moon has also been known as “Selene” in Greek mythology and “Luna” in Roman mythology. 
    Etymology of “Moon”:
    The English word “moon” comes from Old English “mōna,” which itself has connections to words for “month” and “measure”. 

  27. ThirdSunRising Avatar

    We call the moon the moon because it’s not just a moon. We’ve only got one moon and the moon is it. That’s not just a moon, as far as we’re concerned it’s the moon.

  28. Efficient_Fish2436 Avatar

    A moon is anything naturally occuring in the universe that orbits a planet. Could be a boulder the size of a car or our moon. Both are a moon.

  29. Loki-L Avatar

    We only learned about moons other than our own while we have known about the Moon ever since we were able to look up.

    The word Moon for our moon can be traced back to ancient proto-indo-european and we didn’t know about other moons until Galileo and only started to refer to them as moons a couple of centuries ago. The label “moon” for natural satellites of planets really took of when we started making artificial satellites.

  30. Subtleabuse Avatar

    The name of our moon is “The” its all very confusing I know

  31. InevitableRhubarb232 Avatar

    We definitely knew about our own moon before we knew about moons on other planets